All posts tagged ‘Collections’

One of Dave Arneson's unpublished D&D manuscripts. What secrets about D&D does it hold? (Photo: Paul J. Stormberg/The Collector's Trove)

Brass, copper, steel, and onyx sailing ship autographed by its sculptor, John DeMott.

His original gaming dice. His original Dungeons & Dragons and Blackmoor campaign manuscripts. His first printing, woodgrain boxed set play copy of D&D. Letters from Gary Gygax. Other letters, notes, documents, artwork, photos, cartography, rare wargames and hand-made models and miniatures. And more.

All these items were once written, crafted or owned by Dave Arneson, gaming legend and co-creator of D&D. But when Arneson died in 2009, his personal archives and game collection become lost. In 2011, they were found, in an abandoned storage locker in Minnesota.

Some 10,000 items comprising what is being called the Dave L. Arneson Collection — ranging from Arenson’s 1959 game of Risk to game designs he tinkered with up until his death — will finally be sold at a series of eBay auctions beginning Sunday, May 6.

Here, GeekDad provides an exclusive sneak peek of some of the items up for grabs, never-before-seen photos, as well as insights into the collection and its significance from the auctioneer.

One of Dave Arneson's unpublished D&D manuscripts. What secrets about D&D does it hold? (Photo: Paul J. Stormberg/The Collector's Trove)

Brass, copper, steel, and onyx sailing ship autographed by its sculptor, John DeMott.

His original gaming dice. His original Dungeons & Dragons and Blackmoor campaign manuscripts. His first printing, woodgrain boxed set play copy of D&D. Letters from Gary Gygax. Other letters, notes, documents, artwork, photos, cartography, rare wargames and hand-made models and miniatures. And more.

All these items were once written, crafted or owned by Dave Arneson, gaming legend and co-creator of D&D. But when Arneson died in 2009, his personal archives and game collection become lost. In 2011, they were found, in an abandoned storage locker in Minnesota.

Some 10,000 items comprising what is being called the Dave L. Arneson Collection — ranging from Arenson’s 1959 game of Risk to game designs he tinkered with up until his death — will finally be sold at a series of eBay auctions beginning Sunday, May 6.

Here, GeekDad provides an exclusive sneak peek of some of the items up for grabs, never-before-seen photos, as well as insights into the collection and its significance from the auctioneer.

On New Year’s Eve, I finally got my access to Pinterest — the vision board-styled social photo sharing website — and have loved what it has added to my online experience.

GeekMom wrote about their experiences with the website several weeks ago, noting that it was great for discovering new project ideas for kids and home, as well as satisfying more specific interests. I’ve found the same to be true, with boards for Geeky things, inspiration for home remodeling, interesting technology, and even dissertation research. However, I’ve been most pleasantly surprised with how many new things come from this site that are missing from my Twitter, Facebook and Google streams. The significant presence of women on Pinterest is likely a big reason for this.

A retired Minneapolis bus driver who died in a fire last year had a passion for comic books. The fire that took his life started in the kitchen, but a back bedroom filled with more than 20,000 comics was spared. It was just recently that the surviving family members realized the collection was worth about $1 million.

According to the Star Tribune, Gary Dahlberg started collecting comic books in the 1960s and would spend lots of time in comic stores or at comic book conventions. He also collected Star Trek–related items of all sorts, and liked having some of his figurines in the refrigerator to have something to look at when he opened the door.

Living a humble life, he sold two comics before his death — one to buy a computer so he could catalog his collection, and one to help pay off his home. Some family members questioned the value of his hobby, but now that the collection has been appraised, the Star Tribune says the hobby is more valuable than they ever could have imagined:

2,500 to 3,000 of Dahlberg’s 20,000 comic-book collection would end up “easily” worth more than $1 million. “Maybe closer to $2 million,” said Ed Jaster, senior vice president of Heritage Auctions.

Some of the comics of note in the collection are from 1963 : The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 and No. 2. The No. 2 issue is one of only five known copies. The company hired to appraise and certify the collection will sell the comics in the coming year. While 3,000 of the comics are valuable, the majority will only be worth around twice the cover price.

A retired Minneapolis bus driver who died in a fire last year had a passion for comic books. The fire that took his life started in the kitchen, but a back bedroom filled with more than 20,000 comics was spared. It was just recently that the surviving family members realized the collection was worth about $1 million.

According to the Star Tribune, Gary Dahlberg started collecting comic books in the 1960s and would spend lots of time in comic stores or at comic book conventions. He also collected Star Trek–related items of all sorts, and liked having some of his figurines in the refrigerator to have something to look at when he opened the door.

Living a humble life, he sold two comics before his death — one to buy a computer so he could catalog his collection, and one to help pay off his home. Some family members questioned the value of his hobby, but now that the collection has been appraised, the Star Tribune says the hobby is more valuable than they ever could have imagined:

2,500 to 3,000 of Dahlberg’s 20,000 comic-book collection would end up “easily” worth more than $1 million. “Maybe closer to $2 million,” said Ed Jaster, senior vice president of Heritage Auctions.

Some of the comics of note in the collection are from 1963 : The Amazing Spider-Man No. 1 and No. 2. The No. 2 issue is one of only five known copies. The company hired to appraise and certify the collection will sell the comics in the coming year. While 3,000 of the comics are valuable, the majority will only be worth around twice the cover price.

As a collector, I am always interested in the collections of others. Almost everyone collects something and there are also unique collections out there waiting to be discovered and brought to light. I’ve met people who collect things as commonplace as stamps, baseball cards, Star Wars swag and so on. Then I’ve met people who collect the odd, like matchbooks from truck stops across the United States, or carburetors from old Fords. I spent a time collecting coffee stained post-it notes, the stains made the most interesting designs. There are also some things that people collect that just cannot be repeated on a family blog. I’ll leave that one to the imagination.

One collection of a friend of mine piqued my curiosity as the collection wasn’t just objects, it was history and culture all wrapped up into a few simple letters in a name. He collects signatures. For the security of his collection, he asked that I change his name for this post so we’ll call him Karl Von Wolfhauser. While the signatures Karl collects are significant in themselves, what they are written on can be just as significant, if not poignant to the item.

These aren’t just signatures of some current TMZ; celebrity, well some might be. I didn’t get a look at his whole collection. The other fact is, this isn’t just a hobby, it’s a business. Karl makes a good chunk of side change off buying and selling signatures, and there is a brisk business of selling signed memorabilia at auction, from sports signatures to desk items signed by presidents. I wanted to know more about this interesting collection, so I sat down with Karl to discuss what it’s like to collect signatures. Plus, he had stuff signed by Carl Sagan, and that’s just plain awesome.